Yes there is a plan and Ray Ray’s the Leader

Much like Puxatony Phil, the groundhog who appears once a year to enlighten America about the weather, OUR Mayor C. Ray Nagin as emerged from his bunker high atop the Hyatt or deep below city hall, not sure which, to inform the masses that there is a conspiracy to keep the poor black folks from coming home.

THEY are the leaders of this conspiracy. I’ve always wondered who THEY are but THEY must be mighty powerful if THEY can create a Hurricane in the gulf. THEY must be all-knowing if THEY can blow up the levees. THEY must be in charge if THEY decided that the city’s recovery would be “market-driven”. THEY must have known that poor people in general do not participate in the “market”. How can poor folks participate in a market driven recovery when the markets aren’t built for poor people. THEY decided that we could clear New Orleans of poor folks, mainly black according to C Ray, if we could just get some natural disaster to kick our ass.
I think it’s sweet. I saw the comments late Saturday. The first thing out of my mouth was “Damn right”. The second thing out of my mouth was “And you’re the one keeping them from coming back C Ray”.

Let’s look at this rationally.
Who’s in charge of the city? Ray Nagin.
Who was elected Mayor to bring New Orleans Back? Ray Nagin.
Who decided that we need a recovery czar, 15 months into the recovery? Ray Nagin. Who told EVERYONE to come back before the city was ready to fight crime? Ray Nagin.
Who decided that the city would best be served as letting the market drive the recovery? Ray Nagin.
Who took 33 million dollars of taxpayer money and decided that the best place to spend it was picking up trash off the streets? Ray Nagin.
Who decided not to warn people that their neighborhood might not have services (Fire & Police Protection, basics like water and electricity) for 3 to 4 years from now? Ray Nagin.
Who let Greg Meffert treat the city’s technology office as his personal kingdom? Ray Nagin.
Who said during the election 06 for mayor- “I’m the turnaround specialist!” Ray Nagin.
Who has done nothing since his re-election except travel the country raising money for his personal war chest while at the same time spouting off crazy conspiracy plots? Ray Nagin

I could keep going but really why?

Sadly OUR Mayor has gone crazy. I think not though. Because that’s an insult to all crazy people out there.

18 Comments so far

For all of Meffert’s faults he did bring the city’s technology light years ahead of where it was. It also appears that since he left the city doesn’t even have someone capable of updating the city’ website. I believe that using technology effectively we could automate many processes at city hall and allow residents, who have internet access, to complete many of the steps for rebuilding (permits, property tax reconsiderations, etc.) online. This would speed up the process and help everyone spend more time rebuilding and less time stuck in traffic and standing in line.

The “they” is the rest of the state of Louisiana which is loving the chance to stick it to New Orleans post-Katrina. It isn’t a well oiled conspiracy, certainly, but it is doing the trick. Road Home program. Recovery School District.

Sure good ‘ol c-ray is crazy and it is no giant conspiracy, but if you don’t believe that the slow recovery is based on the politics of race and poverty you are also crazy. The government is not making it easy for anyone to come back and certainly not making it easy for the poor to come home.

Meffert- Squashed a 7.5 Million dollar Communications grant before Katrina, dealing with interoperable communications. People dies because of his need to feed his corporate partners.

Worked for the city IT department for 9 months after Katrina. The city’s website rarely worked during that time.

Formed tech companies that are still living off of city contracts.

Has listed himself as “Deputy Mayor” of New Orleans. Much to the surprise of EVERYONE in New Orleans.

Do we even need to bring up the “Silicon Bayou” that we as taxpayers probably paid for.

The State: Yes the Road Home is a disaster. But the state and the feds are still waiting for “correct” worksheets to be turned in so the city can get some of that cash.

Race and Poverty: Sure, these are FACTORS in the slow recovery. But read the post again and answer this question. Just how is a “Market Driven Recovery” suppose to be geared for poor people. What “market” serves the poor? There isn’t one and who has set up this “market-driven” recovery for the City of New Orleans? Why OUR Mayor, C. Ray Nagin

At last Thursday’s city council meeting I listened to some of Nagin’s fellow angry folk screaming about how they could not come back because of outrageously high rents. The ranting
at the podium went on like the train wreck it does when these folks get rolling. One woman even said there had even been an anti-poor black people rally. I asked Karen if we had missed that event . . . it is all too insane.

Given the mayor’s behavior since the storm and given his proclivity for semantics, I would like to “suggest” that someone put him out of our misery. Note that I’ve never “told” anyone to shoot that racist. I’ve merely suggested as much.

Obviously I’m kidding. I could never condone such behavior. Unless of course he was white and a racist and then only because of my piece of the collective guilt at being white. (again, kidding.)

The recovery is going slow because the mayor is more worried about getting his electorate back than taking care of the city. He’s clearly out of his fucking mind and I find it difficult to believe the State or the Federal Government are all too eager to give that asshole a bunch of money or authority. The Governor is too weak-minded to take over the recovery. And the Feds are busy making sure that 69 year old men are hanged on the other side of the world.

The people he’s mostly referring to who aren’t back who want to come back can’t because they’re poor – and that has more to do with class than race. Shit, even if you have marketable skills and can get a good job and you live in New Orleans, you’re going to be poor to some degree as the insurance, rent and utility bills eat away at your disposable income. And for some people, they want to come back but it just isn’t the smart move for them right now though I doubt those people are making a big stink about it.

So let’s look at it a second, the city is more expensive to live in than before the storm and (construction jobs not withstanding) there are less jobs than before the storm. And who would be responsible for creating this scenario either through their actions or inactions? I think the Mayor has clearly allowed this situation to be created and in many ways encouraged it.

Do I also think it was somewhat inevitable? Sure I do. When you have no resources you only have a few vestiges of power and authority. One of those vestiges is the right to vote and, well, you didn’t use it wisely and now you live in Houston. It’s harsh but it’s true. I know a lot of people who are not coming back for a few more years. I know many more who are seriously considering leaving for a few years. Look at the number of houses on the market in populated areas (uptown specifically) and tell me people aren’t hauling ass.

The mayor is about to have a bigger problem than getting people back – who’s he going to blame when the population numbers reverse because everyone’s leaving? At that point he’s declare that “they” have won.

Questionable politics knows no bounds. We just keep handing these crooks the keys to our city, state and country. We, the voting public, must do a better job of choosing our candidates. Despite the fact that I have not met more than 1 or 2 people who willingly admit to having voted for Mayor Nagin, here we are. C. Ray in the house.

Housing indicators were decidedly mixed for New Orleans last month according to the Katrina Index, and most homes for sale were in flooded areas–probably because they’d just been gutted and readied for such sale. There are no indicators of a haul-ass.

Please- Are your feet on the ground in this city? Do you drive thru the neighboorhoods that Jack was talking about?

There are more homes for sale that WERE NOT damaged right now than I can believe. Some may be testing the waters but from my view I see a mass exodus.

We get more calls to the station about people saying they cannot take any more and that they have decided to leave than at any other time in the last 18 months. Summer and Hurricane season are not even here yet.

Please look over the document–those are recent statistics from reputable sources. Your anecdotal info is of no interest to me. It’s like judging how an election will go by the number of signs for one candiate or the other, while driving through the same parts of town all the time. (In my section of Mid-City, there are definitely not more homes for sale than there are in Gentilly. And Robert’s and Walgreen’s have announced plans to move back to Robert E. Lee in Lakeview, which doesn’t sound like evidence of a haul-ass to me. Sorry.)

You got the wrong link up then. There are two pages on the link you furnished. None have anything about statistics of who is selling homes. Nor what area’s have the most homes, flooded or non-flooded, for sale.

What does Walgreens and Robert’s have to do with any of this? Do you know how long until they re-open? Call a real estate agent that sells in Orleans Parish like I did 5 minutes ago- ” Dan you wouldn’t believe the amount of people looking to leave”.

Oh for god’s sake, you can find the entire Katrina Index by clicking on the document or going to the Brookings Inst. or the Greater New Orleans Foundation sites, with stats from the Census Bureau, the Nat’l Association of Realtors, etc., as well as the City of New Orleans. And I’ll trust those more than your self-selected radio caller reports. (Meanwhile, stores planning on moving into Lakeview is evidence of enough of a market to make it there now.) I printed an exec. summary due to the fact that most people don’t want to wade through long policy documents. But it’s not as if the Katrina Index is something obscure, or hard to find via a Google search on your own.

The idea of Metroblog is that of anecdotal information as a “feet on the ground observation” of what’s really going on. If you aren’t interested in that then Metroblog may not be the thing for you. Maybe you should look into signing up for the mayor’s newsletter instead.

I personally know at least ten families that have left to never return. Cousins, family friends and acquaintances are just a few. Many small private practice clinics are now empty with “For Lease” signs on them. Not every doctor works at a hospital. Eye doctors and dentists are leaving just as fast as the M.D.’s.

I also noticed a huge increase in real estate sale signs around town. Lakeview may come back, but it is going to be a long while. I’m telling you, the people with money are starting to get the picture. I think they realize that if they sit on their $450,000 Uptown home for five more years, it may be worth less than what they paid for it 15 years ago. People with money aren’t stupid. That is why they have money.

My aunt lived on Bellaire, just five blocks from the big break on the 17th st canal. She is still waiting to figure out what she can do. The house was worth about $375,000 pre K. If she gets everything coming to her, she won’t get even half of that. It would cost $250,000 to rebuild it, so I think she is going to take what she can and let the Corp bulldoze it.

I’ve written about it before. We can keep walking around thinking everything is fairy dust and gumdrops but that kind of thinking is what got us here in the first place. Think logically and the answer is right in front of you.

Who the hell is going to commute out to Lakeview to work at Robert’s and Walgreen’s. The stores that are in populated areas still don’t have enough employees. Are the buses running into Lakeview now?

By the way, you can read all the reports you want too, but owning a restaurant is a great way of getting the consensus on the average man. I would say at least 30 percent of the customers we talk to every day are ready and willing to jump ship when their finances are in order. I’ll probably be gone too in the next couple of years unless Jesus returns, but then I doubt the Nazarean could fix this gigantic mess even if he was a carpenter.

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